Audio 4:08
NRA Chief accuses Obama of deception

Brendan TrembathUpdated
Fri 15 Feb 2013, 2:33 PM AEDT

The head of America's influential National Rifle Association has accused the US president Barack Obama of deceiving the public in his State of the Union Address. Wayne LaPierre says in the hour long speech president Obama did not mention school security once.

Transcript

SALLY SARA: The head of America's influential National Rifle Association has accused the US president Barack Obama of deceiving the public in his State of the Union Address.

Wayne LaPierre says president Obama didn't mention school security once in his hour-long speech.

The NRA chief executive has revived his call for police and security guards to be deployed in every school.

Mr LaPierre spoke at a hunting convention in Tennessee, where he was loudly applauded.

Brendan Trembath reports from the ABC's North America bureau.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: A four day hunting convention is taking place in Nashville, Tennessee. The National Rifle Association chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, has appeared there.

The head of the National Wild Turkey Federation, George C Thornton, introduced him.

GEROGE C THORNTON: He is one of us, he is a hunter, he is an outdoorsman, and he knows what we stand for. We're privileged to have him with us, please join me in giving a warm NWTF welcome to the CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre.

(Applause)

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The National Rifle Association chief gave his response to the US president's State of the Union speech two nights ago.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: In that speech the president displayed a level of public deception that simply cannot be ignored.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: Days after tragedy struck Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the president held a press conference at the White House. We're going to have to look at schools, the president said, adding later that Sandy Hook should be a wake-up call for all of us to say that if we are not getting right the need to keep our children safe, then nothing else matters.

That's a direct quote from the president. Nothing else matters.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Wayne LaPierre has repeated his call for beefed up security in all schools.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: More than 23,000 schools have armed guards, in all 50 states, government officials, local authorities and school districts are considering right now their own initiatives to protect schools with armed security.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The US president Barack Obama has proposed comprehensive background checks and bans on large capacity magazines and certain military style rifles. But the NRA chief Wayne LaPierre says none of the measures have anything to do with school security.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: We're the millions and millions of Americans who take responsibility for our own safety and protection of our children as a God given right. We're proud to exercise that right and we are not ashamed of it, and we deserve nothing less than the absolute respect and admiration as lawful American gun owners under the Constitution of the United States of America.

And for our second amendment freedom, Mr President, we will stand and fight throughout this country as Americans for our freedom, we promise you that.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: When Wayne LaPierre speaks people listen. The National Rifle Association is one of America's most influential lobby groups.

WAYNE LAPIERRE: The National Rifle Association of America is nearly now 5 million members strong and growing by tens of thousands every day.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: That's not easy to verify because the NRA does not publish membership lists. It's been suggested that some of its life members are actually dead.

Academic Osha Gray Davidson made the assertion in her 1998 book Under Fire: The NRA and the Battle for Gun Control.